All work and no play make Jack a dull boy. This saying holds true even today and schools make it a point to work on the overall development of skills of the child rather than only focussing on the literacy part.
A child needs to excel in reading, writing and mathematics to become an educated individual while real-world skills are needed to make them a better person. These skills make them an asset to society and intelligent enough to face life struggles. A teacher makes sure children from a young age can learn real-world skills which would be of great help when they grow up.
5 ways a teacher can help kids learn real-world skills
Develop Collaboration: Humans are social creatures and it is impossible to survive in isolation or to get work done alone. Whether in class or the workplace, later on, children need to learn to work in tandem with others. Kids learn real-world skills through social interaction at school.
Teachers can design activities where children can work together in groups to work on a creative challenge. These challenges help them to overcome their fears. The kids get to test their skills and develop a sense of confidence and assertiveness when they can solve problems on their own while working in groups.
This confident and assertive mindset will help them in the future when they communicate with other people to solve higher-order problems in their future workplace.
Building evaluation and critical thinking skills: In today’s world science is making an innovation every day and discoveries are being made at breakneck speed. The facts which are true today may be proved false tomorrow with some new study and evidence. So, younger people should always be encouraged to find out the correct facts before consuming information. Teachers can help them in developing analytical and critical thinking skills by giving them research-based projects.
Working in groups or alone to ascertain facts and figures and verifying them with their source whether right or wrong helps the students in developing analytical skills. Also, when using the information in a project, finding out any new recent advancements in that particular field is important. This is because sometimes new information might be opposite to the existing facts and figures. So, students should rely on their thinking power to derive lessons and learn real-world skills.
Tolerance and Resilience Training: Young students are the future working force and building blocks of a new and bright future. While working in a globally connected community, students as individuals should be accepting of all the cultures existing worldwide. They should have equal respect for all individuals irrespective of caste creed and region or religion.
Teachers can help inculcate real-world skills in children by arranging cultural exchange programs, open discussions, school trips to the workplace or organising Q&A sessions where students can ask and learn new concepts. In these activities, they get first-hand experience of how persons with different personalities, backgrounds and thinking can work with each other. This is mainly done through mutual respect and tolerance of each other’s views. By engaging kids in these activities, kids learn real-world skills of tolerance and resilience.
Help Learning via Strength Points: All individuals are born with an innate capacity to learn and process new information. All individuals cannot learn in the same manner, rather different techniques may be needed to explain the same concept to two different people.
Teachers can help students learn through their natural curiosity by structuring lessons in such a way that it is appealing to all of them regardless of their strengths. This encourages the kids to learn real-world skills of using their strong points in difficult situations in life and work accordingly to solve those difficulties.
Help to apply learning beyond the classroom: The learning acquired from school when used in some practical situation helps the kids realise its importance in everyday life. Whatever children learn at school, unless it is used repeatedly in some meaningful manner, chances are they will forget in no time.
The kids learn real-world skills at school and the teachers must help the kids transfer these learning into their daily life usage. This can be achieved by giving them challenges and asking them to complete them with their problem-solving skills and completely outline how they would approach solving the problem at hand. This allows them to transfer their school learning into practical life.
To conclude, schools are a second home for kids and this is the place where they learn educational skills to excel in life. While educational skills are foremost, real-world skills are equally important in making them better human beings. Only when they are better human beings then only their skills can be put to use in their most proficient manner. Teachers play an important role in helping kids learn real-world skills and become a pro at them while practicing and taking part in various problem-solving activities in school.
By practicing and using skills in real-life situations created in school, the learnings become a permanent part of their memory due to regular and meaningful usage. Real-world skills help kids to succeed in life and excel in whatever stream they choose to work after school.
